Mi

Early in the 20th century, Minneapolis, a medium sized city in the state
of Minnesota, had a reputation for being one of the biggest scab towns in the country,
where trade unions were consistently kept out of the shops, though some militant
unionists were able to get elected into public office. Prior to the
outbreak of WWI the mayor and several other city positions were won by
socialists. Mayor Van Lear had a platform of taking the utilities companies
away from
the capitalists, and public education reforms. Their main opponents were
the Citizens Alliance, a
group a capitalists who kept union activities
quiet until the depression hit.

Charles Lindberg, Sr., father of the pilot and a prairie populist, was one of
the Citizen's Alliance biggest foes. Among his targets were JP Morgan and
banking practices, the Catholic church and the creation of the Federal
Reserve. Lindberg and other populists were members of the Non-Partisan
League, which later joined with the Farmer Labor party to become the DFL.

After WWI, the Red Scare was much to the advantage of the Citizens
Alliance. It was now their candidates that ruled Minneapolis and other
local offices. When the depression hit, that changed again with the help of
some of the most successful leadership in the history of the US labor
movement. Most notably there was Teamster organizer Vincent Dunne, (one of
five Dunne brothers that played a role), along with Carl Skoglund and
Farrell Dobbs.

Intense and hard fought clashes resulted in many injuries and three deaths
during the 1934 strike. Governor Olson called out the National Guard for
crowd control. The Citizens Alliance was eventually broken, and the
Teamsters won their right to organize. Minneapolis was now a main center of
the Socialist Workers party and militant labor activity.

In time, sectarianism and legal battles began to take their toll. Trotskyist, Vincent Dunne, was the subject of many heated attacks by his
brother, Bill Dunne, editor of a rival newspaper and a Communist Party member.

In 1941 was the famous sedition trials where 13 Socialist Workers party members were tried and convicted for violation of the Smith Act. For more details about the strike see the series of articles, The 1934 Minneapolis Strike,
published in Revolutionary History.